Embracing A Lifestyle By Throwing Away Less

Hi there and welcome to the life freshly sorted podcast. I’m Bronwyn Kidd, the creator of SUSTOMi, and this is the show where I’ll be bringing you some of the latest, greatest ideas, stories, resources, and some of the most interesting conversations in the health and sustainability space. And it’s all for the benefit of our health and the earth. I do believe that improving health and the earth come hand in hand and it really starts with the people. So wherever you are along your low-waste or low-tox journey, there’s something here for you. And remember real change will start with you. Let’s jump right in and bring on today’s guest.

So today, we’re down in beautiful Franklin, visiting Abbey Fancourt of The Daily Greens. Now I met Abby through Instagram, actually I believe it was, wasn’t it? And came across Abbey’s lovely account where she shows all her low-waste living tips. So then I’m here in her property in Franklin, Tasmania, having a look at her lifestyle and how she lives plastic-free and sustainability way. So, welcome Abbey!

Thank you. Hello. How are you? [Really well. So tell us about The Daily Greens.] Okay. Um, so I guess when I started going low-waste, I wanted to start recording it and keeping track of it. So it just started with an Instagram and that’s a really good way to connect with other people and learn. And then I decided to create a blog to put some of the recipes and things that I was making and I don’t know, tips and what I was doing. And, and now that’s, it’s been going for a few years. So that’s just where I connect with people. [Amazing! And it’s the cost of how we met.] Yes. And it’s so good for that.

And what’s next to The Daily Greens? Well, I’m really excited to do these workshop. I think that’s going to be a cool.. [What about the low-waste skincare with SUSTOMi?] Yes, yes. We’re doing a collaboration and I don’t know, I have, I work full time as well, so it’s hard. It’s very much like, for lack of a better term, a side hustle. So I just try and keep it consistent and keep sort of showing up with it because I love it. But I do also have to just fit it in around everything else. That’s going on. Plus building a house and just the hectic times in life. Yeah. Yeah. So I just want to keep going with it and see what other opportunities come up and what’s happening in that space because I just like being connected to that community.

Could you start by sharing how you got started on your low-waste journey and what was it for you that made you begin this journey? ‘Cause I know you started, Oh, I know you haven’t always lived like this.

No, there was a point somewhat, actually it was pretty drastic point. It was, I have a good memory for dates. So it was August 2016 and I was in Margaret River, Sam, my partner and I had been traveling around in a van. We were doing like a six months sort of around Australia trip. And I read in a magazine about zero waste, which I’d never heard of before. And I think at that point in time, so previously I hadn’t been necessarily sustainable or environmentally conscious, especially with waste. And I think because we’ve been living in a van and we had to be more responsible for our waste and find places to dispose of it, I was more conscious of it and that’s, that article came to me at a good time. So, and I also had a lot of time on my hands because I wasn’t working. Yes. And I was probably itching to do, I hadn’t been working for months and I needed a project. And so I started researching it and got really into it and I was so excited to come home and start, you know, trying to reduce my waste around the home and make things and sort of as a challenge. And then, and then that’s, that’s where it started.

Awesome. Sorry, that was 2016. So we’re now three and a half years later. [Yeah] And how’s it all going and I bet you’re gonna take me on a little tour of your place and show us what you’re up to at the moment. That, how far along are you?

So it’s sort of like, I started off doing the whole hardcore, trying to reduce every bit of plastic and as much as I could sort of to the point where I probably went a bit overboard and then you sort of bring it back and you’re like, okay, I’ve got to make all of these changes sustainable for me or I’m going to overwhelm myself and give up. And also with a partner you’ve got to find a nice compromise and not force them to do anything that they’re not comfortable with. So we moved, we’ve moved a lot in the past couple of years as well. So every time that’s happened I suppose as a new sort of lifestyle and new changes to make with that. So we were living in the van and then we were house sitting and then we moved to Melbourne and then we’ve moved down to Tasmania.

And I suppose the decision to move to Tazzie and sort of live off grid probably came from that sustainability value point that, um, because previously I had never imagined I would be living on a farm. That wasn’t really the way I was raised or any kind of long-term dream. Well, suburban and I don’t think I ever really looked beyond living in the city. I didn’t really explore those options. Um, and with Sam, he’s probably more of a country boy. So he hates the city. And after we came back from our trip, I found the city so overwhelming and too busy and cluttered and wanted to move somewhere more spacious and naturey.

That’s amazing! All right, well, let’s have a look at your place. [Okay, let’s do it.] Okay. So now we’re just going for walk around Abbey’s kitchen and checking out some of the swaps that Abbey’s made. So what would you like to tell us about, Abbey? What are the main things and swaps that you’ve made?

Okay, just looking around. So we have my shelf, which is like an open shelf full of glass jars and dry goods. So I go to, I actually just went to the bulk store. There’s a basket full of new things. So most of the jars are second hand or just, you know, used from old products. Then you wash them out and, or like the nicer ones are from op shops or garage sales. [They still look fantastic. Why?] Yeah. Yeah. [Because we worry so much about, you know, having an Instagrammable shelf..] Having them all match. [And I have to say yours is definitely Instagrammable.] Thanks. I have Instagrammed it several times. Um, so we usually have that, we’ll stop. You’ve got a really good bulk store down the road.

So I just take all of the jars. We weighed them. They tear the weight and then I just bring them back and pop them on the shelf. And then with the fridge, we only recently got a fridge. So previously we didn’t have power, so we just had our fridge items in it, like a silver box. So we would, we’re in the habit of not buying too much fresh produce at one time, just in case it goes off, which I’m probably going to just continue doing because it just means we won’t have as much waste as much food waste [should add in there that you’re living currently off-grid.] Oh, yes. Sorry, that’s important. [That’s important in the intro. But yeah, so you’re building a house and currently living off grid in a shed.} Yes. And we’d previously been living in a van and then we moved into the shed and didn’t have any power or anything, but we’ve recently got solar panels on the roofs and now we have electricity and I don’t know what to do with myself, but we have a fridge that is pretty empty.

So the sorts of things you’ll see in here are again, like lots of jars, of things that I’ve bought or made. Like pesto this morning, would just grab a handful of grains and stuff from the garden and used the nuts and things that I had rather than following any kind of recipe, which is my usual way to do things, sort of substitute and make it up as you go. And then, you know, I’ve got like beeswax wraps and the Silicone covers that you gave me that are awesome. [Yeah. Wonderful.] [So what about your washing up?] Oh, that’s a whole system. So we don’t have running water in the kitchen. So we’ve got a water tank around this side. I take a big pot, a big silver pot and fill it up and then I put it on the gas stove here and boil it.

And then I take it out to the washing up station, which is just outside, which is just a sink that we got from the op shop, the tip shop actually. And Sam made a bench for it. I get my dishwashing liquid from the bulk store again and use like hand-knitted dish cloths, which I’m needing a new one now because they keep getting holes in them because I think, than being outside, I don’t know, they just wear quickly [Okay, what are you knitting them out of?] Oh, just cotton yarn. [Okay.] Yeah, they’re great though. They’re really easy.. Yeah. I like it. And because I work in an office and I sit inside all day and I love coming home and standing outside, like surrounded by all the trees and with the birds, it’s very wholesome and just washing the dishes.

It’s great. But we also, but we’re also very, you get really good at like scraping out your dishes really well and reusing your water glass and you’re not just mindlessly throwing things in the dishwasher when you have more of a process behind things and everything’s not as convenient. You get, I don’t know, you don’t take it for granted I suppose. [So imagine there’s a few areas of your lifestyle where you can’t take things for granted. Like example about your rubbish collection. Do you have a collection service?] No, we don’t. So I actually, we take everything to the tip. So we’ve got our recycling bin here. Which is just like a, what would you just call like an aluminum. I just call it a lack in Oscar the grouch bin. [That’s definitely Oscars.] Yeah, it’s super American. So we just have one of those which we collect our commingled recycling and then when we go down to the tip, we actually separated into the different bins.

So glass, aluminum, paper, then commingled I think for like hard plastics. And then I’ve got this bag here, which is soft plastics just to.. [Okay. So to session back.] So things that go in there like birdies, dog food bag, and we get pasta in plastic and there’s just occasionally things that come up that are in plastic. And I take that down to Woolies. And then I’ve got this collection here, so I’ve got a little jar full of rubber bands and they will either come in handy for something like I make my coffee cup, I’ll explain that later. And then this is full of bread tags and lids, which I can take to work. And they have a recycling system there. So there’s a few little things. And then landfill, it just goes in like this bucket here, one of these white old, I think it was sour cream bucket that we picked up from somewhere.

[A large bulk..] Like how big is that? 10 liters or something. So that gets the landfill stuff in it. And then I’d either take it to a friend’s bin or we pay to dispose of it at the tip. [And I must add that is the smallest of each of these bins, which is great quite safe.] Yeah. Although, I will say that with building waste, so that often is like a pile of stuff out there that I think Sam or our builder friend will take down to the tip. And that’s things that you can’t recycle or use, which is more than I want to know.. [About the household waste, how much are you producing in terms of household waste?] So a lot of it is compost as well. So similar. A similar bucket for compost and that either goes to the dog, the chickens, or then the compost.

In terms of household waste, I mean on a normal week, I don’t know. That would take a while, like a few weeks to fill up. It’s only when we sort of have visitors that things, because there’s hardly anything that goes in landfill. There’s like pill packets, you know, the Panadol or stickers from jars, broken glass, which happens a bit on these concrete floor. [Yeah, that’s a bit of a misconception, that glass is recyclable as well. So how do we know what glass we can recycle?] So I recently went to a recycling facility and I learned that in Tasmania. So it’s really hard because it’s different everywhere you go. But in Tasmania, actually all of the glass gets crushed and it’s used for irrigating water. [How does that work?] I don’t know, it’s sort of like that aggregate, that blue metal outside that you see. [Okay.] They lost me a bit on that.

Yeah, it’s like ground up. It’s not like sand fine. It’s just like little chunks. But I was sort of upset to find that out ’cause I was thinking that old glass was being recycled into more glass. But we don’t have the facilities down here. So in Tasmania, it is all crushed. And I know that similarly like in Perth I think, or in Western Australia, sorry, it’s all crushed and goes into the road base. So there’s this, it’s not recycling, it’s down cycling. So now I make sand by 10 Sofia instead of glass bottles.. [Interesting! Because aluminum can be recycled.] Yes. And it is recycled into more aluminum, and it can be recycled endlessly. So it’s, you pick up all this knowledge and you just try and implement all these things into your life and do your best but I don’t know with recycling it’s hard. That’s why it’s best to avoid waste to begin with rather than trying to figure out where to recycle it.

And find ways to reuse and up-cycle things and take, you know, use it here in your own place and take responsibility for it rather than sort of shipping it off. So, which was something that we’ve really learned to do because we don’t have a garbage truck coming.

Oh an oven. I missed an oven. Yeah. So I’ve got all of these baking recipes bookmarked for when I have an oven. Again, we do have a camp oven, the big cast iron pot, but that requires obviously a fire outside and you have to heat it up to get the coals hot enough.

So Sam makes really nice dump pie and we occasionally do roast veggies, but I miss like baking and doing lasagna and stuff like that. And I don’t know, aside from that, that’s all I can think of. I didn’t really miss anything else. [That’s really interesting that you said that it’s um, you know, cooking appliance. So many people say, ‘Oh, I can’t live without all these new clothes, the food that comes in plastic packaging.[ I mean I occasionally.. yeah. Yes. Because I think you have to have a reason why you’re making these changes. So if I was just to be told that you can’t have plastic anymore, then of course I would be, you know, the one thing that sticks in my mind of what we would miss is meagering. So like completely covered in plastic, full of like Palm oil is terrible and we haven’t had it in years, but we did use to eat it while we were traveling and this sort of some things like that that I would never have now, but I don’t want to have because I know the cost of, the environmental costs associated with it.

And it’s just, I just don’t miss it because I know why I don’t want it. Whereas if I was told you can’t have it anymore without reason, that would be problematic. So it’s the same with clothes. Like I’m happy to buy. The majority of my clothes would be from the op shop or bought secondhand online. And that’s cool. I don’t miss fast fashion.

And you do need to sometimes do a bit of research, but if you’re interested in it, then you do. Like you watch the documentaries and you read the blog posts and you just keep learning. There’s so much to learn.

So I love experimenting and making things, so that’s always fun. I just actually love doing that as a hobby. So I don’t know. I’ve always been creatively inclined, but I don’t know, I never used to really make like things or craft. I never knew how to knit. So it’s really cool because when you start wanting to reduce waste, it makes a lot of sense sometimes to make things yourself because then it eliminates the packaging. And it can be a lot cheaper than a lot of a lot of products can be expensive. And if you’re on a bit of a budget, some things you can make yourself, so why not? And I’ve also found that you learn all these really valuable skills that you otherwise wouldn’t have. So yeah, like I learned to crochet last year, which would never entered my mind before. So now I can do that and I can, I know make my own beauty products and I’m fine.

Learn beauty products. So shall we dig into that? Take a look at your beauty case. Let’s go to Abbey’s dress-up, I guess you’d say, and having all kind of gorgeous little basket with a homemade beauty products. So talk us through, Abbey. What have you got in here?

Okay, so I think maybe the majority is homemade and then there are a few things that I’ve bought. So are out. Let’s just look. So I’ve got a toothbrush in here. Oh yeah, sorry. A little bamboo case and then just a bamboo toothbrush and I can just get that down at the bulk store. So this is like a balm that I make, I call it an everything balm because I use it fully, truly everything. It doesn’t look that I’m feeling. So it’s made of like beeswax, shea butter, some carrier oils and essential oils that at its most basic. And then sometimes I’ll add different things like vitamin E oil, castor oil or infuse the oils with calendula or chamomile.

I’ve had, I bought them online for, I can’t even remember where a couple of years ago. So I still have a huge supply and then the bulk stores increasingly are making these things available, which is awesome.

There’s obviously a demand for homemade beauty sort of product ingredients. So you can get things like shea butter down the road. And I’ve seen folks, those who carry like a whole selection of carrier oils. So that’s really awesome. [So it sounds like you kind of buy the ingredients as an investment and then you have it for years.] Yeah, well I definitely do that ’cause I also make products for like my mom and sister and friends. I give them out as gifts a lot. So I’ll buy like a larger bottle of her herb oil for example. And it still lasts a really long time and it’s much cheaper than buying like the little tiny ones that you can in like a health store. And even when you’re thinking about bulk ingredients, sometimes you forget that they still have to come in packaging. So sometimes if you know you’re going to use it or you can share it amongst friends, it’s still going to use the same amount of packaging if you buy a large bulk amount yourself. So I’ve done that a few times with various things and..

It’s a lot less, but I don’t know the exact amount because I always make, usually when I’m making, I’m experimenting at the same time, so it might end up being a really odd amount and I wouldn’t be able to measure it. But for some things like dry shampoo for example, that costs like a dollar to make as opposed to, I don’t know, what’s a dry shampoo spray? $15 over $10 special. So overall I would, I don’t know, I would be saving a lot, but I’ve never been someone who bought like really expensive skincare. But I used to, I sort of cringe at what I used to do and I’d go to like Priceline and get just random stuff to try.

And there’d be one of those promotions that’s like, spend $60 and then get this bag of like samples. And I’d be like, cool, that sounds awesome. And then I wouldn’t use them. And then they’d end up in the bin. So now I can make exactly what I need and use it and then when I need more I’ll just make more. So there’s no, there’s nothing going to waste and yeah, there’s just no impulse buying or spending.. [‘Cause that takes a lot of mental control to not go for those freebies and just like you wouldn’t say for the taking you just..] Yeah. That’s, that’s taken awhile because I sort of grew up doing that as well. Especially with like food. It’s like it’s free. Take it. I don’t know. I guess I was thinking now like if you, if you look at the zero waste principles, like the first one being refused, so refuse the things that you do not need.

So it just means that I’m sort of like mitigating that waste before it comes into my hands so I don’t have to worry about how to dispose of it because I haven’t thought of how to deal with and I don’t need like a free bottle of water. I can just get some from the tap.

Yeah, ’cause you get caught up. Because when you’re in those environments, you’re there.. when I’m there, I’m sort of training you to buy things in all of the packaging and visual merchandising so it’s all very seductive. [So it’s beautiful. But it’s powerful in a negative way.] Yes. Totally.

So this is a big money saver. I literally like.. [It just looked like that it’s bought from the shop.] Yeah. You just have to double them over cause they, they’re quite stretchy cause obviously like thick legs. [So that’s just a black stocking that you’ve detached with pair of scissors] Yeah. You just cut up the leg in sort of horizontal strips and then you have these little hair elastics and they’re amazing. So they’ll last.. you can recycle those, you can recycle them, you have to send them to like Sweden and then they’re downcycled anyways. So this is a good solution. And then I also use them to tie the tomatoes up to the trellis. We’ve got things like, my friend gave me her old go-to, what’s it called? Like an oil, a face oil dropper glass bottle because that’s always she uses.

And I was like, Oh, I’ll use that to put my own face oil in. So now it’s.. [Super adorable droplet.] Yeah. Yeah. So that I just fill with like herb oil and maybe I’ve got a few other oils that sometimes I’ll mix together like apricot kernel and sweet almond and, and then just put a few drops of essential oil in and then I can mix it up as well. Like if I feel like doing a different blend. I’ll just try something new. So that’s my daily sort of face cream. I love it.

She basically did this one to be honest. I’m not that good. What else have we got? Vegan. What’s it called? Dental floss. [Dental floss, for cleaning your teeth?] It’s not, it’s a, it’s a bit of a hard one, right? So I always have these sorts.. So I’m vegan and this is good because it comes in a little glass package and you can get refills. So you’re not having the waste of that little hard plastic dental floss box. [What makes it vegan?] Well, okay, so normal floss is vegan, but you can either get one that’s compostable, which is made from silk, therefore not vegan. Or you get, and this is just from this brand, or you can get the one that still has a small amount of plastic or synthetic materials in it. So you can’t compost it, but it doesn’t use silk.

Yeah, there’s a bit of activated charcoal. And you know what, it’s not a problem here because I spit my toothpaste into the grass. But this morning I stayed at a friend’s house last night and I spit into the sink and the charcoal just goes everywhere. So I mean that’s not like a necessary ingredient so you could tailor that. But there’s lots of different recipes for tooth powder or toothpaste and this one’s got bicarb xylitol to make it sweet, which is delicious. Got a little bit of salt. I think I put in some peppermint essential oil, which makes sense – the freshness. [What does it smell?] No, no, it doesn’t really smell. I think I put sage in it.

So that’s the other thing we’d like homemade products is they don’t have synthetic fragrances or anything, so they’re not as strong smelling body. Everything is natural and you know exactly what’s going in there. So, and you can tailor it to yourself. So both your tastes like what you like, the taste of all, what you like the smell of, but also what works for your skin. Like you might have more sensitive skin in a certain way or you might react to ingredients. So, I don’t know, you might have oilier skin. Therefore, you can make something that works for your complexion and all of that kind of thing.

It’s great. And you sort of taking the power back. I love it. I love it. And then this is shampoo. These little cubes are really handy because.. [So you buy these one?] Yeah, I buy these ones. This is one of my purchases. So that part they’re probably more expensive than buying a bottle of shampoo.. [I have the same ones like these before.] They’re so good because I shower at work. I have showers at work because we don’t have a really like a shower. We just don’t have a shower here to be honest. I won’t just skip around that. We don’t have a shower, but I luckily work in an office that has a shower and I take those and they’re really handy because it’s not, I otherwise would use a shampoo bar, which I love as well, but then I have to put it away so it would get all um, you know manky.

Yeah. You wanted to sit it out to dry where.. [I think they’re amazing for traveling as well.] Yeah. ‘Cause you can just put a few like in a little jar. [So it’s called Beautiful Kubes.] Cute. Yeah. Cubes but with a K. They’re good and they really do the job. And then I use Apple cider vinegar rinse as a conditioner. So I usually infuse some Apple cider vinegar with Rosemary and then you dilute it, one, two, three with water and then just like pour a little bit of that into your ends and your roots. And that’s really good sort of conditioner. What else have we go? That’s sort of the main stuff. This is just a, well it was a spray water with essential oils for like a hydrating mist to treat yourself. I don’t know. That’s it really. I have other things but they’re at work where I have my stuff like masks and this one’s bought though. My mom got this for me. Oh wait, this is a tooth powder. Oh anyway.. [So a plastic-free purchase one, which is great.] Yeah. And there’s so many options as well. If you don’t have the time or the interest in making your own. There’s so many cool products these days that are both natural or waste-free, or compostable packaging. You would know all about that.

And a dry shampoo. Yeah. Real easy things and like, you know, just replace, replacing what you have. And the other thing to remember is it’s exciting when you start to reduce your waste or go sort of low tox and you want to just get rid of everything and start fresh. And the one thing that I want to suggest is that you use what you have first. You don’t just go and do a crazy clean-out and throw everything in the trash because that’s not really what’s it about.

Yeah. It’s like when you need something new, then look, it’s like making it or finding a sustainable option and then you still have a new product. It’s really exciting when you’ve made something for yourself. It’s super satisfying.

Yeah. It’s a different kind of excitement and happiness than say going to buy a new car, for example, if that’s one that everyone can relate to, you get that buzz afterwards. So yeah, I completely agree. It’s not about just going out and buying a whole new range of products. It’s about taking it slowly, changing a few things at a time.

No. Because there’s so much like I’ve got enough, I’m doing enough. It’s all right. I can have my mascara. That’s the other thing to remember. It’s like, it’s sort of like a 90-10 rule. You can’t do 100% perfect all the time and that’s fine. So I’m okay with that.

And it’s actually a doing this and you’re sharing it and you’re sharing your story is wonderful and I know that you’ve inspired thousands of people, Abbey. Definitely. And we’re about to inspire hundreds and thousands. Hundreds and thousands? Wow! So Through what’s coming next in the next few years.

Thank you very much for showing us your collection and all the goodies that you’ve made here. Probably even post some of the recipes online, especially we were after the workshop’s complete. So keep an eye out online for some resources to some of Abbey’s recipes for beauty products. And there will be also footage attached to this and lots of content, visual content online. So check it out on thedailygreends.co on Instagram. And what’s your blog?